You are real
by Blazeraptor54
Summary: In which a boy from old bones, and new life, finds that love is of the soul.


**_You are real._**

* * *

Penny Polendina was running check after check, she had a malfunction. The malfunction was simple, it came to one person. That person was a fellow experiment in the form of one Naruto Uzumaki. She was a project meant to create a new life, while he was an experiment to revive old life.

The bones of old met the metal of the new age. They were meant to be separate tests, with Naruto being a wonder while she was looked at as another machine. But, for whatever reason, they were put into the same group together in Atlas.

Very few people knew who they were.

"Penny-chan," the blonde called out to her. "You still running your systems or whatever?"

"Yeah," she sighed a she looked at the data. "I don't get it, I really don't."

"Well wanna talk about it?" Naruto asks as he used a flame in his hand to boil noodles in a pot.

Penny looked at him, "what is your inquiry?"

He rolls his eyes, "like normal people Pen."

The ginger girl just lowered her head, "sorry friend."

"Don't be sorry," Naruto made a second bowl even though she didn't need it. "Here."

The girl watches as he slides the bowl over to her, noting the noodles soft texture. She saw the fork in it while he had chopsticks. It wasn't that she wasn't willing to learn how to use chopsticks to better simulate normal behavior, it was just easier to use a fork.

She didn't need to eat, she could easily just plug herself in a wall somewhere if she needed the emergency boost in power. However, biofuel wasn't exactly out of the question. Scanning over the food, finding a high amount of starches, she went about "eating" the food.

The blonde watches her, noting the glowing of her eyes, "are scanning me or something?"

"Yes," she admits without missing a beat. "You've got several contusions along your abdomen and your testosterone levels are heavily elevated."

"It's called a sparring match," Naruto told her as he quickly finishes his noodles. "I don't have an aura, never will, so I can become damaged easily if I'm not careful."

She continued to run her scans, finding nothing wrong with her. The error had begun when she had accidentally hacked into an AtlasTube channel dealing in illegal new movies being played without the copyright on their channel. She wanted to report it, but there was a movie where every girl in Atlas had been bragging about it.

It had been a romance movie.

For once she fought the programming, she looked at the empty bowl in front of her. Her body's system carefully churning the food into biofuel, burning it away at her core. No different in a way a normal person would digest their food, she keeps scanning Naruto, however.

She noted the wounds healing rapidly. However, for some reason, her scans lingered on the figure beneath the shirt and just above the skin. The teen in front of her, the only thing she could describe him as was what Atlasian women would call handsome. Blonde hair, blue eyes, the Faunus whiskers on his face.

Though he denied being a Faunus.

He was sweet, kind, but he could be a little childish sometimes. He didn't obey orders, not to the extent that she did. Its angered Ironwood to no end when Naruto would just skirt a test or totally find a workaround instead of following through with it.

Maybe he felt like it was beneath him, maybe he felt like they were treating him like her…a machine. For some reason, that thought hit her. This feeling, these results blaring in her data stream, where she felt bad for being who she was.

She didn't know what it was, so with a heavy sigh to simulate the feeling she looked at Naruto.

"Naruto…what is the feeling called when you hate being called something?" Penny inquires as she looked him in the eye.

Naruto stopped eating, he looked back at her, "anger."

"Anger, noun, a strong feeling of displeasure, annoyance, or hostility. I don't feel hostile to anyone but do feel displeasure in being called a machine…" she reveals to him, he looked at her.

For the last seven months since their shared project began to a joint venture, perhaps to find what was superior, he had a saddened look. The blonde then smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. The android seemed perturbed by it but allowed the action.

"Penny-chan, you're not a machine quit calling yourself that," Naruto states as he made sure to have her full attention.

"But machines are incapable of feelings, and I don't know what feelings are…I'm designed not…born. Machines can't bleed, I don't bleed." She debates with him, "and I feel as though humans don't have mechanical bits for their insides."

"Well…true," Naruto admitted as he rubbed the back of his head. "But you have an aura, right?"

"I do have an aura," Penny answered. "Why does that matter?"

"Well those dumb scientists say that aura means you're alive, and aura for you is like chakra for me. So, if you have aura…Pen…you're alive." Naruto tells her as he smiled.

The smile sent her system into scans, pulling up the error codes from before.

"Do…I have a soul?" She asks him, there seemed to be a desperate call to her voice.

Naruto nodded and then flicked her head playfully, "duh!"

"You're my friend," the blonde ancient tells her, "why would I lie to you?"

Her eyes glow brighter, "data entered…I, Penny Polendina, have a soul!"

There was a smile on her face as she said it, and Naruto blushed a little a bit, "you have a cute smile ya know that, Dattebayo."

"Thank you, friend," She cheerfully said before grabbing him and wrapping him in a hug.

The blonde smiles before bringing his arms around her, "don't mention it, Pen."

* * *

Penny was getting reamed by Ciel, the girl was looking at her. They had begun to discuss things, and Penny got tired of being called a robot by the girl. So, she finally expressed that feeling called anger. She argued back, saying what Naruto had told her.

"Naruto is not really a person either," Ciel argued as she looked at the charging android. "He wasn't birthed by a mother, he's just a genetic clone."

"But he has what he calls chakra, and I have an aura, we're both alive." Penny continued to argue, it was several months before they were due to leave for Vale.

This was a predicament that was new, and some scientist found it slightly unsettling. They monitored her code, noting the system errors every so often that appeared. Though, seemingly, some that appeared prior began to disappear after she began arguing back against Ciel's view.

"Look, Ms. Polendina, just face the reality that you're a machine…" Ciel reasons with the girl only for Penny to suddenly get up from her chair.

"I'm not just a machine!" She yells, for the first time.

Ciel's bonnet nearly fell off her head, she was flustered. The tan-skinned girl looked at the scientist in the observation room just by theirs. They looked at each other, the lead scientist nodded and then smiled as he turned to the other scholars in the room.

"Gentlemen," he said with beaming pride. "I believe stage two has happened, the development of feelings."

"Indeed Dr. Polendina, Project Penny's coding can't seem to understand it though…" a scientist points out.

"Ah, well, that's something she'll debug herself later. As for project Lazarus, how has the clone of those old bones done on his last combat test?" Dr. Polendina inquires as he walked toward the other observation room.

"Naruto Uzumaki, Lazarus One, successfully eliminated three Armored Gigas with little effort. This chakra he mentions seems very similar to our aura, perhaps its forerunner. However, is it wise to keep Project Penny and Project Lazarus interacting with one another?" A scientist inquires.

"Of course," he looked at the blonde in the combat room as one of his limbs was transformed into a red and black mass of energy.

* * *

Naruto was sitting in their shared room, observing her as she scanned her systems. She had gone through combat training today as well, and despite the minor cuts he had the mechanics failed to notice a slight scratch on Penny's cheek.

He smiled before tapping her shoulder, she stopped her scans, "yes friend?"

"You've got a scratch," Naruto suddenly formed a small black sphere, "let me repair it."

"My aura will repair it; my skin is made of nanomaterial that is organic in nature." Penny tells him as he stopped, and sighed, "did I say something wrong?"

"No," Naruto looked at her. "I can just feel…your aura…its conflicted."

"O-oh, so you can scan me as well?" Penny nervously questions as she looked off to the side.

"A little," Naruto smirked as he answered her.

Slowly the cut began to heal up, showing that she had been right. The blonde sighs as he looked at the black sphere before dissipating, but before he could Penny had scanned it. Her eyes glowed for a moment before she looked at him.

"Unknown element composition," she tells him as he chuckles, "is that humorous to you, friend?"

"A little, it's a technique that I was given during the end part of my life. It has _all_ the basic elements in it, you know. Fire, wind, water, lightning, and earth. However, what makes it truly powerful is the fact it combines both light and darkness to give shape." Naruto forms two more in his hand, "I guess you could say the old bones they made me from…gave me a leg up."

"Was that a pun?" Penny asks, confused by his choice of wording.

Naruto nods and smiled, "yes it was. But why are you so conflicted?"

"I had an argument with Ciel today…I yelled at her." Penny tells him, seemingly ashamed by her actions.

She sighs, "Ciel kept telling me that I was a machine, and you weren't a person."

"Boy oh boy, do I have ever the tale to spin from that line of thinking. I guess a benefit of being a clone of…well…me is that I have all _my_ memories. You see, when I grew up in history is far different from yours. There was no Grimm, there was no Dust, there wasn't even the idea of an airship. However, I was born and made into what my people called a Jinchuuriki." Naruto tells her and watches her eyes glows as she absorbed the information.

"What is a Jinchuuriki?" She inquires, unknowingly opening an old wound.

Naruto sighed, "in your language, it literally means "the power of human sacrifice" and that's what I am still. Kurama, The Nine-Tailed Fox of my time lives inside of me. I'm his vessel, I was made into this because someone decided that taking control of the fluffball would be a good way to destroy my village."

"It didn't work out, but on the flip side very few people treated me like a person because of him. I guess for a long time I resented humanity because I was made into the demon they feared, and they never chose to treat me like a human being. Though, the numbers did grow…I came to realize that even in the end I went from being a demon to a lot of people to be a savior." Naruto continues to reveal and then he sighed, "I died protecting those that once hated me."

Penny then grew uncomfortable and looked at him, she felt…something, it wasn't anger. Slowly she gathered the error codes, it was the same code over and over as she looked at him. The girl reaches over, mimicking the action he did earlier and gripped his shoulder.

He was surprised by that, "hmm?"

"You're amazing!" She cheerfully states as the smile on her face grew brighter.

The blonde smiles, "Arigato…Penny-chan."

She then sighed, "but…I have a question. The feeling I'm feeling right now for you, what is it? I mean, it is not anger…I feel…heavy."

Naruto smiled, but she could tell it was a something of a fake one, "it's called being sad."

"Sad…noun…feeling or showing sorrow; unhappiness." She murmured as she looked through her programmed dictionary.

She looks at him, it solved a lot of the error codes she had previously. Was she so unhappy, despite putting up the façade of smiles and cheerfulness? Then she realized the definition of façade was to fake, and she grew sadder.

Was she faking who she was?

* * *

The time to head into Vale came, Naruto was granted permission as well, but he was more of an escort to General Ironwood than a student. There was no need for him to be in the classes, he was generally good at abstract thinking and learning, and he easily acquired knowledge through his ability to use clones. Something that both impressed and perturbed her creator and father Dr. Ivo Polendina.

Dr. Polendina was an elderly man, who dedicated his life to creating robots and had created Penny as initially a start to a better weapon system. However, he found that he could program and essentially create a matrix of abstract thought. Achieving sentient A.I, that A.I was Penny. Named after his long-lost daughter and modeled to look like her.

The little girl had died in a training accident when she was becoming a Huntress. Something Penny, early on before even gaining a body, learned. It was this abstract learning that allowed her to copy the best parts of being a human, the cheerfulness and happiness.

However, she was still limited and had to learn what other feelings meant and felt like. Thus, as her father explained, The Error Codes. These codes were there simply because Penny didn't know, and when her machine part of her consciousness didn't know the next course of action, like any system it would throw up an error.

However, some of them began to be solved as she hung around with newer friends. Namely Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna, and Pyrrha Nikos of all people. The quartet of socially awkward girls would often meet in the library, though Ciel often tagged along.

No one really liked how Ciel acted around Penny, timing her all the time and making sure she _optimal_. Since they knew her secret, thanks to an incident at the docks and Pyrrha accidentally pulling her with her semblance, they openly discussed secrets.

Pyrrha's love for a boy named Jaune Arc.

Blake's obsession with her novel series and wanting a romance like the one in the books.

Ruby's secret stash of cookie dough, more specifically chocolate chip cookie dough.

Penny's fascination with the concept of boys and being girly.

The girls would spend literal hours talking back and forth, with Penny learning newer things. Such as shyness meant that someone wasn't usually scared of you, it was that they were scared that they may say the wrong thing. That took care of a few error codes in of itself.

The feeling of being shy.

Then there were the talks about fashion, and why Penny had the urge to change her outfit every so often. Once again, error codes were eradicated, and she learned the feeling of indignation. Being content to change her outfit every so often, and she started to do that much to the annoyance of Ciel. She was then forced to go with her and the girls to go shopping.

The android learned about fashion easily enough, finding a pattern in how women dressed to their personality. Ruby's love for red was passion, and so was Pyrrha's, while Blake's love for yellow and black meant peace and feeling, and then her own. She loved green, the color of life. She wanted to feel alive, and she felt alive.

Penny Polendina felt alive, she had a soul.

She learned other emotions, there was the overbearing feeling of resentment. She resented the way she started out, how she felt like a tool and less of a person. However, she found out that she could've long ago learned about annoyance.

It boiled to a head when she got into another argument with Ciel, demanding independence to be around her friends without her being overbearing. This led to a meeting with General Ironwood, and of course, this dragged Naruto into it because he never followed orders.

Especially when someone tried to shut him up.

However, it was through Naruto, that General Ironwood finally relented and told Ciel that the goal of Penny was to learn to become human. If it meant that she should feel independent, then it meant that the no-nonsense teen had to back off.

Ciel, reluctantly, agreed.

These events happened quickly, spontaneously sometimes, and each time she learned about various things. Why she hated the smell of certain food items, so elegantly explained by Weiss, was disgust. The way she felt before and after a test was anxiety.

She learned these things, so many words and so much more behind them. Eventually, she began to worry that some error codes were actual errors because they still didn't disappear. Luckily, when Ruby explained to her that these were a product of fear…some were eliminated.

She didn't know what else she could learn, she learned almost all the basic emotions. However, it finally came to a head one day. It was just before the tournament.

"Jaune and I shared a dance," Pyrrha told the girls as she looked at them. "It was probably the very thing that made me soar."

"Oh, vomit boy making move eh?" Ruby jokingly questioned as she looked at her friend.

Pyrrha nervously laughed, "yeah, but that's why I love him…he's so affectionate and caring."

Penny looked at Pyrrha, "didn't it give you anxiety when he started dancing with you?"

"Oh yeah, of course, but that's mostly because it felt weird for a moment to dance with him while he was also wearing a dress." The girl admits and then looked at Penny.

She smiles, "and I saw you and Naruto doing the robot."

Penny giggles a little bit, "yeah, it was just spur of the moment."

"Hmm," Blake hummed as she looked at her. "Penny is that a blush I see?"

The girl's cheeks were indeed showing a fluster, however, she hiccupped when she tried to hide it, "nope."

"You're lying," the youngest of the girls pointed out. "You're totally blushing."

"Well, I just, when you say you're nervous around a boy…well…well…" Penny stammers as she didn't want to say she didn't understand the emotion.

She didn't want to burden her friends any further with helping her learn to become human.

"Oh, my Gods…." Ruby suddenly breathes, "you're in love!"

"Wha-what, but that is the same as affection right? I learned that already, but what does it mean to be in love exactly?" Penny's face grew a heavier blush, it wasn't the programming, it had long since been run amuck and abstract thinking and learning took over.

The girl took a deep breath, "but what does it mean exactly?"

"It means you love Naruto," Pyrrha points out, "no different than my feelings for Jaune actually."

"But, what about…I…he…" she continues to stammer, "I don't know what to do."

Suddenly her systems flashed a memory of the time she had hacked into AtlasTube, the first time she disobeyed her directives. She then checked timestamps, ever since the first error codes were thrown, to the point that error code was being thrown.

It was when Naruto told her she had a soul…the first time anyone made her felt like a person. She got up from the table, much to the surprise of everyone and began to make a mad dash out. Her scanners sensing Naruto's high energy nearby, up in the offices of Beacon.

Ruby and the girls looked at each other, with Pyrrha giggling gleefully, "I think our friend just learned what love is."

"What?!" Ruby screamed as she got up, "Penny wait up I don't want to miss this!"

Blake rolls her eyes, and then looked at the novella, "the boy who fell in love with an android…huh…"

* * *

Ironwood was in another heated argument with Ozpin, Naruto was getting annoyed quickly. Especially with them discussing how they could _use_ him. He hated the word, use, like a lot of people had used him back in the day.

Slowly, but surely, he made his way out of the room. Into the elevator he went, he felt it began to lower him down. The blonde felt it stop and open. There, he saw Penny, who seemed to have a desperate look on her face.

"Penny-chan, everything okay?" Naruto asks her before he is suddenly pulled toward her.

He looked bewildered, "Pen-mmph?!"

It was a weird kiss, Naruto had kissed people in his past life, but no one ever dragged him toward them. It was either an accident, getting revived, or simply getting the life sucked out of him. The weirdness of it all made him freeze up, wondering if Penny was experimenting or just making a breakthrough.

Eventually, she caught wind that something was up, backing off, "sorry…just…had a breakthrough."

"Oh, um, learning what kissing is?" Naruto nervously asks, noting there was some lipstick on his lips from her.

She had begun wearing lipstick like Blake did on occasion. Looking at her, she seemed to be simulating blushing, and then she looked at him. Smiling, and then reached her hand out to him.

She mumbles as she looked nervous, "I didn't really want to do the robot at the dance…I wanted to dance with you as Pyrrha and Jaune danced."

"Penny, I…I…" Naruto tried to find some words to say, "I don't understand."

"There was an error code that had been bugging her for a little bit," she admitted and looked bashful. "I never could figure it out, until now."

The blonde's eyes widen at her next words, "it was love…I love you."

Naruto softened his gaze, smiling even as he took her hand, "you do…well…let's go dance in the ballroom then."

"The ballroom is closed though," Penny pointed out. "Plus, its locked up."

He clutched his hand with hers, slowly walking toward the ballroom, "then I'm going to teach you another lesson…breaking rules that are stupid."

Giggling, Penny watches as he used his energy to unlock the room and formed clones. They failed to notice Pyrrha and Ruby observing them, the two girls smiled at each other as Blake continued reading her book.

"Well, now, is she…a person now?" Pyrrha asks, "I mean that with no offense."

"Well duh, Pyrrha, she has had a soul for a long time," Ruby argues and then smiles as she heard music playing.

When Ciel tried to stop them in the room they watch as the girl was just tossed out and the door slammed in her face.

Ruby smirks, "serves that jerk right."

"Yep," Pyrrha agrees, "but I wonder what they're listening to in there."

Blake didn't move her head from her book, but she smiles, "everybody loves somebody."

"Duh," Ruby replied. "That's a no brainer."

The Faunus just rolls her eyes, "never mind."

Naruto and Penny were slow dancing in the ballroom, held up against each other as music played in the room. Penny recognized it as a song off her creator's playlist, it was a musician by the name of Sean Marlin. Known as the king of cool, a well-known musician from Vale.

The girl was over the moon, she didn't think Naruto would be so accepting of it. Her logic code was kicking in, as it would, she was in love but was still burdened by probabilities and such. However, when she felt Naruto press his lips onto hers the last error code went away.

It became clear to her, and then for the first time ever, it felt like she had a heartbeat.

She felt real.

This feeling was love, and she would embrace it, no matter how long she lived.

He broke the kiss, smiling at her.

"So, Penny, what made this happen?" He asks as he kept dancing with her.

"You were the first person to say I had a soul," she looked into his eyes. "That I was person…"

Naruto smiles as he held close, "we're both people…Penny-chan."

* * *

 ** _Special Thanks to BuenaVSTA_**

* * *

Two people stood near a tree, watching as the sunset. The Grimm have long been gone from the world, but these people were transparent. See through, a massive war had claimed their lives. But, however, their love lived on.

Two graves laid under the tree, one casket filled with the decayed body of a clone of a hero that had been waiting to rest. The other, filled with the body of android that passed away before her lover ever did.

That night in Beacon was the night that two souls connected. There was no need for them to embrace the lustful side of their minds, Naruto had no desire to sire children in this age. His age had its time, it was time let sleeping dogs lay where they were. He fell in battle holding back an entire Grimm army as Ruby activated the relics so that the gods could be rid of Salem.

The world was free of the Grimm, it was free of darkness.

As the sun set on this long peaceful day, to break way into the songs of night creatures, the two spirits stood at the tree. Penny Polendina died a few days after her declaration of love, she had waited and waited for him.

"So, what now?" Penny asks as she turns to Naruto. "I've never experienced this before…and there's no way I can run a simulation on it."

Naruto laughed as he looked at the sun, "I guess…we just go."

"Just go?" She questioned as she looked at the City of Vale.

The blonde nods as he looked at her, "yeah, you've been waiting for me for a long time, right?"

"Three years," she says as her fingers intertwined, "you could've fallen for someone else…"

"Meh, even back in my day I wasn't normal," Naruto replied as he watches the sun continues to set. "Besides, my world had its time…and that time had come and pass."

She nods as she looked at their graves, "did they grieve me?"

"Of course, they did, I did too…you were my best friend and Ruby loved you like a sister." Naruto brought her closer to him.

* * *

 ** _Dedicated to a real girl, Penny Polendina._**

* * *

"I wish I could experience what they're about to, have children and all of that. I always wanted to be real, like they were, even if I was a person…I wish I was still like them." Penny laments as she lowered her head, only for Naruto cup her chin.

He smiles at her before kissing her, they stayed in a lip lock as their souls glowed orange and green. Slowly they turned into orbs, floating off into the sky above.

Naruto chuckling could be heard over the land as the night finally came, the songs of the night creatures with it.

 _"_ _You were real to me…"_

* * *

 ** _I dedicate this one shot to my fans, my friends, and my followers.  
You make me happy, and I know this may not be my best work.  
But understand that the context of love isn't flesh.  
Not even bone or nerves.  
It's of the soul, and thusly you're never alone when you find your soulmate. _**

**_Beauty will fade.  
Eyes will grow milky.  
Once was silky.  
Is rough and degrade.  
Love will always remain._**

 ** _Thank you all for reading, please stand by for newer things._**


End file.
